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Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 3, published as A Pastoral Symphony, took shape from ideas he first noted during his First World War service in France, and was completed in 1921. It was first performed at Queen’s Hall, London, on 26 January 1922 under Adrian Boult. The composer later described it as wartime music and called it “four movements, all of them slow.” Its four movements are Molto moderato, Lento moderato, Moderato pesante, and Lento. The second movement features a solo cadenza for natural (valveless) trumpet, and the finale opens and closes with a wordless soprano solo.

Its flowing, modal melodic writing and richly coloured orchestration set it apart from conventional symphonic argument, and the trumpet cadenza and the distant solo voice give performers memorable moments of individual expression. This score and set of parts offers orchestras a deeply personal, atmospheric work from the heart of the English symphonic repertoire.